Dwelling Disappointment

Seasonally adjusted annualized April housing starts were 1.287 million. While that is up 10.5% Y-o-Y, and 8% YTD, housing growth is painfully weak, and all because of single-family activity. Multifamily has fully recovered and will henceforth move sideways. However, single-family starts of 894,000 are at solidly recessionary levels despite being 107 months into the current economic recovery, the second longest in US history. Thus, we currently underbuild by 250,000 units/year!